Development of Mao's Thought

Mao's thought developed during the early years of this decade, a period of great turmoil, with growing conflict between traditional Chinese thought and new ideas from the West. Mao became an active local leader in the May Fourth Movement of 1919, and he retained his revolutionary fervor. However, he also became convinced that what was needed was more than mass enthusiasm, and also required was an organization of dedicated revolutionaries. The Russian revolution was a model, and Mao attended the founding of the CCP in Shanghai in 1921 and organized the Hunan branch. Two parties developed in the 1920s, the CCP and the KNT (Kuomintang). The KMT-CCP United Front had formed first and then divided into the two separate units. Mao had encouraged peasant activities against landlords, and this had hastened the split. The KIT was allied with the warlords and was thus stronger militarily than the CCP, leaving the CCP struggling in the rural areas. This was one of the reasons for Mao's developing his rural strategy for the Chinese revolution. This involved more than surrounding the cities from the countryside, and instead it became a complex and interdependent synthesis of military, political, and economic elements, utilizing techniques of guerrilla warfare. One measure of the effectiveness of Mao's thought is the degree to which it served to resolve the intellectual conflict underlying it:

The importance of the May Fourth Movement should by now be apparent. Intellectually, th

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ising even within the Communist Party. The key to revolutionary success for Mao was absolute ideological commitment to the collectivist, egalitarian, participatory society, and it was to be practiced in daily life as well as through all the institutions of society. Mao succeeded in his revolution and took control of China in 1949 as head of the Chinese Communist party. Chinese politics as instituted in 1949 had certain goals, and the issue is quite complex. Part of the complexity in sorting out what changes were made and why stems from the fact that key decisions were and are made in secret by a small number of people. China's political system is a closed system, and history itself is shaped by official doctrine and decision-making. Chinese politics is multi-dimensional and from the first involved such dimensions as leadership conflict, policy conflict, the evolution of political institutions, shifting relations between state and society, and ideological debate. When the Communists came to power, it was after years of political and military struggle. One political party was now in power, and this fact was remarkable in itself. The CCP made a number of innovations that laid the basis for future changes: First was the r

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